Lloyd Schwartz

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Surrounded by artist Michael Mazur's monumental drawings of the Memorial Drive sycamores in an upstairs alcove of the Charles Hotel, pixie-ish MGM musical star Jane Powell looked even more petite than she seemed on the big screen.

"Before this pre-game show ends," mezzo-soprano Susan Graham announced on Super Bowl Sunday, near the end of her joint Celebrity Series recital with fellow Metropolitan Opera diva, soprano Renée Fleming, "I guarantee we have sung every note live ."

Middle East meets West The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, an ensemble of musicians between the ages of 15 and 36, equally Israeli and Palestinian (but also from Spain, where they rehearse), was founded a little over a decade ago by conductor-pianist Daniel Barenboim (who made headlines performing Wagner in Israel) and the late Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said.

The last few BSO concerts of the season have had their pleasures and raised some questions, especially about who might be the next BSO music director, one of Boston's — indeed, one of the country's —major cultural positions.

There's a shiny new band in town, conductor Benjamin Zander's Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, a 117-member ensemble consisting of New England players from 12 to 21. The inaugural concert nearly sold out Symphony Hall for an auspicious debut.

Last year's most satisfying Boston Symphony concert was led by the 41-year-old British composer/conductor/pianist Thomas Adès, who combined music from his marvel-filled opera, The Tempest (2004), with other works inspired by Shakespeare's late romance.